The elegant tower of master Elarion was a familiar sight on the outskirts of the city. There, the famed mage studied the arcanic secret of flight and air elementry, financing his research by supplying the nearby city states and rich merchants with prized airships.
Until this fateful day when some kind of magical mishap happened and the tower started to collapse. Up. In slow motion.
Surely, say the neighbouring villagers, the Gods had punished Elarion for his arrogance in tempering with the laws of nature and unlocking secrets that men were not mean to know. Then again, the said the same thing when Borald, famed inventor of the Moonshae islands chilli-dogs, died of food-poisoning...

So, the idea is to make a mage tower except that the floors are no longer connecting and instead floating above one another, slowly drifting up in the gentle summer wind.
I am not exactly quite sure how I'll manage these effect. My idea is to use the previous flood as background for one above it, shrink it down and blur it a bit... Not sure how it will turns out... (and if anybody has a better idea, I'll be happy to hear it).

Anyway, here are the WIP so far...

Starting with the ground floor so far (this part is still where it belongs) with the entrances and store rooms.
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And the second floor, where the workshop is located (the Northernmost part of this floor, where you can see the heavy metal plates, is where the forge is supposed to go).
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As of right now, I haven't started the other floors (the third one will be the mage's private quarters and library, the 4th should be the enchanting and alchemical labs and the last one will be the the launching area for the flying ships).
I have not started on landscaping the area surrounding the ground floor...
As for the furniture, but I am planning on pillaging the dundjinni forums as usual, I believe it's allowed by the contest rules.

Gidde

06-03-2012, 03:52 PM

Neat concept, looking forward to seeing this develop :)

Bogie

06-03-2012, 11:43 PM

Good start Simon, lots of great furniture at DJ Forums.

Simon33600

06-13-2012, 06:04 PM

Ok, sorry for the late posting...

Anyway, I finished the basic plan, going up all five floors, and then I start installing the furniture, going done. It took a bit of time, because I ended up creating but mostly modifying a few objects (it's a slippery slope I tell you, you start telling yourself, "well, rather than scrolling on a piece of paper, I might as well make my maps on a computer and keep and reuse them", then it is "well, I might as well try to use something a bit prettier than paint" and soon enough it becomes: "crud, I can find the exact pillow for the leftmost chair, let's spend hald a night making it!").

Anyway, I am almost done with the 2nd floor (need to put things on the table, but first, I need to make a "ship plan scroll"), the mundane workshop (there is a sonic screwdriver on one of the table, but it's pretty much impossible to recognize at this scale :( ).
### Latest WIP ###
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Next are the mage's living quarter/library:
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Then the alchemy and enchanting laboratory:
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Finally, the topmost floor where the last minute fine tunings are performed and the ship launched in the blue wide yonder:
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Hopefully, tomorrow, I will finish the furniture of both the 2nd and the first floor (mostly barrels and crates) and hopefully start working on the surrounding grounds...

Jaxilon

06-13-2012, 08:20 PM

Is that the ship on the top floor? That looks cool.

Bogie

06-13-2012, 11:39 PM

Hey! No Fair!! You're using a bunch of my artwork in a contest competing against me!! Just kidding! It's great to see the objects I made get used. Excellent work!

Lyandra

06-14-2012, 01:31 AM

This looks like a really interesting concept. I'm looking forward to seeing the final map. It looks great so far. :)

Simon33600

06-14-2012, 02:23 PM

Is that the ship on the top floor? That looks cool.

It does, doesn't it!

That ship, and the vast majority of the furniture and quite a few texture, comes directly from the mad geniuses at Dundjinni including, our very own Bogie (hiya Bogie, and many thanks for all your hard work!)...

I also found an extra-cool picture of Leonardo's flying machine there:
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Simon33600

06-14-2012, 06:45 PM

And here is the populated first/ground floor (with, once again, a generous helping of Dundjinnian furniture), not the most interesting set of rooms, but meh, mundane concerns need to be addressed too...

### Latest WIP ###
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And that's about conclude the building itself (until I decide it needs "just one more little tweek", obviously). Well, I still need to go and add the various shadows...
Next, I'll try and put them into context... Not sure how convincing it will turn out...

Hurm, just noticed the red outline is showing up. I'll switch it off on the fina version...

Jaxilon

06-15-2012, 02:46 AM

Don't forget your ### wip messages.

Simon33600

06-15-2012, 06:43 PM

Ok, I have been working on the background next.

Basically, the idea is too prop the various floors on different layers, one on top of each other, reducing the size each time all the way to the top floor that remains on the ground...

So, I'll need a landscape to represent the ground, and here is where this last picture comes in...

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At this point, I am wondering if, maybe, I didn't "unzoom" a bit too far. I don't want the various floors to be too far apart, after all... Hurm, I could always crop part of this picture and focus on it...

On the other hand, I would like to add a layer of cloud at some point, so, that's suggest something rather quite high up already... Decisions, decisions...

Simon33600

06-16-2012, 02:54 PM

Ok; I updated the various floor maps, and then put everything into context with the background:

### Latest WIP ###
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I still have to construct a frame around this picture, but I am starting to think, I will have a workable product by tomorow...

Jaxilon

06-16-2012, 09:42 PM

Hehe, reminds me of a platform game :)

Simon33600

06-17-2012, 02:34 PM

he, that's not a half-bad comparison...

While I didn't go as far as write and actual adventure around it, in my mind's eye, I imagine the PCs jumping from one floor to the other and progressively making their way upward while fighting some weird denizens of the tower...

I guess I should add some magic mushroom somewhere...

Simon33600

06-17-2012, 04:18 PM

Well, let's see if I can fit everything into one picture (I believe that it is the rule of the contest)...

So, here it is:

### Latest WIP ###
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Depending of how energetic I feel, I might revisit it later tonight, but, in all honesty, probably not...